UC Davis Senior’s Surprise From Friends A Home Run

DAVIS (CBS13) – One UC Davis student was ready to watch game two of the World Series on television, but one local college student had a sudden change of plans. He found himself in the crowd at AT&T Park.

He still gets the chills talking about one of the most heart-warming moments of his life captured on a YouTube clip. It was a giant surprise for diehard Giants fan Kyle Braver.

“If you look at the video about half of that I’m struggling to breathe,” said Braver.

Braver, a UC Davis senior, snagged a ticket to game two of the Fall Classic.

This hard-working campus coffee house worker must’ve won a radio contest? The lottery? No. He just has the best friends in the world.

“I’m incredibly blessed to have the friends I have,” he said.

Braver’s a pretty cool dude, too.

“He’s a genuine person, like he genuinely cares. When he does things for you it’s not because he wants something back, he cares about people. He loves people,” said Ashley Smith, a friend.

That’s why his friends and co-workers collected close to $500 for the standing room-only ticket, plus money for transportation.

“So then people started throwing in $5, $10, $2, $6, $20,” said Smith.

It all added up to priceless pictures and a page in Braver’s book of dreams that ranks pretty high up there.

“Going to the game? Outside of certain family things like my little brother being born, this is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” said Braver.

Just like Panda did in game one, Braver goes deep with his answer when asked about the best part of the night.

“There are 42,000 people in the stadium and you feel like you’re the same person and you feel like it’s just an incredible communal experience. And the energy there, it’s something I can’t even explain,” said Braver.

So as Braver finishes up his work at the coffee house, visions of last night’s game still dancing in his brain, his prediction is a Giants sweep — at least his friends don’t have to buy him a ticket for game six.

Braver’s friends tell us they had to move fast once they collected the cash. That’s because the ticket price kept going up, but the result, as you saw, was priceless.